


I can show you all the places that we used to go

by whynotcherries



Series: Here, here, my family (you are my familiar) [6]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Ben Hargreeves Lives, Best Friends, Character Death Fix, Family Fluff, Family Reunions, Fluff, Gen, Good Sibling Ben Hargreeves, No Incest, Platonic Cuddling, Short & Sweet, Sibling Love, Temporary Character Death, because he was dead before but not anymore, didn't, it's still ridiculous to have to put that, no beta we die like ben, this is basically just an appreciation post for vanya and ben
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-01-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:28:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22179337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whynotcherries/pseuds/whynotcherries
Summary: After nearly causing the apocalypse, Vanya had been stuck in the infirmary.On one of her first days out, she runs into Ben in the library.Nobody had told her that he's back.
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves
Series: Here, here, my family (you are my familiar) [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1593757
Comments: 6
Kudos: 320





	I can show you all the places that we used to go

**Author's Note:**

> So, this definitely isn't my best, but I wrote it really late last night for the most part. I might rewrite it later, but for now, here's this!

How they’d gotten back is still confusing for Vanya. 

She’d been unconscious the whole time, which was a part of it, but part of her believed she could also put some of it on having siblings who didn’t know how to explain. She was given a run down by Klaus, who probably wasn’t the best person to explain ( _“We went backward too far, and then we came forward,” he’d said_ ), but then Five made it worse by going further in-depth.

So, she’s still not entirely sure what all had happened- just that she’d been out cold for a little over three days.

When she’d woken up, only Five and Klaus had been there. Allison had been packing to go visit LA- she had missed one counseling appointment, and she couldn’t afford to miss another. She didn’t know where anybody else had been, but she could guess that they’d been hanging around the house.

This is the second day she’s been able to walk around freely in the past week.

She hadn’t planned on taking stairs yet, but she’d decided that she wanted to go grab something to read from the library- the _big, full_ library, which just happened to be downstairs. She hadn’t thought it would be so hard to go down stairs with such little balance, but she seriously contemplated scooting down the rest of the stairs.

Eventually, she does reach the bottom on her feet. She has to stand and catch her breath for a minute, but she’s there.

When she looks up, she’s convinced that she’s hallucinating.

“ _Ben?_ ” she calls, staring in frozen shock until she looks up.

Suddenly, the fact that she’s barely supposed to be walking doesn’t matter in the slightest, and she finds herself nearly sprinting over to the chair that her brother has just stood up from. She launches into him, nearly sending him back into the chair.

He starts crying a few seconds before she does.

After a minute, he pulls her back by her upper arms and they both start talking at each other.

“I missed you so much!”

“What are you doing down here?!”

“I- how can I _see_ you?”

“God, I wanted to hug you so _bad_ ,”

“Is Klaus doing this? I don’t understand!”

After a few seconds of incessant rambling, there’s silence.

Ben pulls her back by her arms, again, holding her extra tight as his shoulders start shaking with silent sobs. She starts crying, too, just at his show of pure emotion.

After a few seconds, she leans back, “Nobody told me that you were back,” she mumbles, resting her forehead on his shoulder, “I mean, they explained how they went to the past and then back to now, but they never mentioned,” she trails off, taking in a shuddering breath.

She can almost feel him smiling, “I asked them not to, I wanted to surprise you once you were feeling better,” he explains, rubbing her back a little bit, “you must be, since you just totally bull-charged into me,” he snorts.

“Yeah, I guess I am,” she chuckles, picking her head up and stepping back a little bit- as much as she can without forcing Ben’s hands off of her shoulders, “I wanted a book- I didn’t think anybody ever used this library anymore.”

He shakes his head, letting go and turning to look around, “Nobody has in a long time.”

Another moment of silence.

She turns to look at him, “Were you there? You know, when…” she trails off. It’s hard for her to say it- she’s not even sure she actually _has_ said it.

He nods silently, meeting her eyes, “I tried to stop them, but- well, there wasn’t much I could say to get them to think,” he smiles, “but, in my opinion, they could’ve handled that better,” he says, turning serious, “I think if they’d done more to help you, maybe it could’ve been avoided.”

She nods, looking down before glancing back up and throwing her arms around him again, “I missed you _so much_ ,” she cries, “I have to give to all the books I have in my apartment, and _show_ you my apartment. We should also go get coffee, and-” 

Ben pulls her back, “Vanya. Vanya. Vanya!” he interrupts, “We have plenty of time for that,” he says, turning her around and sitting her down in the chair, “but, you’re supposed to be doing something resembling resting,” he says, putting his hands on her shoulders.

He then walks across the room and drags another armchair next to where she’s sitting, before disappearing in between the racks for a moment. He reappears with a stack of four books, “This is what I’ve read since I got back. Here,” he says, handing them to her, “we should also go through the shelves once you’re feeling better, get rid of everything we won’t read. I plan on spending my inheritance at the bookstore, so we’re gonna need more space.”

She laughs at him before picking off the top book. Ben settles down in the other chair, and they fall into a comfortable silence, enjoying each other’s presence _and_ their books.


End file.
